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<h1>FRDL Overview</h1>

<b>F</b>light <b>R</b>ecorder <b>D</b>own<b>L</b>oader

<H2>FRDL is designed to be as idiot proof as possible....</H2>

FRDL is designed for Microlight and Paramotor competition organizers, 
and for team leaders or pilots to all quickly reliably and painlessly
extract track data relavent to competition tasks from a variety
of different GPS flight loggers, and then convert it into the FAI
CIMA specified format for detailed examination in a flight analysis program.

<p>
FRDL maintains all the information it needs about the championship,
championship tasks, and the loggers in use in a <b>championship file</b>
(*.frdc).   Once a championship file is open, FRDL is ready for use.


<p>
FRDL operates in two different <b>modes</b>:
<ul>
    <li><b>Full mode</b> is for normal everyday use and for use by the
    championship organization.</li>
    <li><b>Download only mode</b> If a password is set by the championship
    organization, then any attempt to download the logger by an instance
    of FRDL with the incorrect password (eg by a team leader or pilot)
    will put FRDL into Download only mode.  <p>
    In download only mode, the latest championship settings for task windows
    Etc. are copied from the logger to FRDL so pilots
    and team leaders effectively download their loggers quickly
    and easily with the exact same
    settings as the organization is using.  They will therefore have
    saved identical track data as the organization already has, which
    they can analyse for themselves.
    </p>
    </li>
</ul>
For further information, see the <b>Modes of operation</b> help item.


<h2>Basic sequence of events</h2>

FRDL keeps a <b>constant watch</b> on USB ports.  If a logger is
connected, then FRDL  attempts to identify it from a special file
on the logger (logger.frdl) which uniquely identifies it and which
was written to it the first time it was connected to FRDL.

<p>
Once a logger is identified, FRDL immediately <b>backs up</b> its
entire contents to the host computer.

<p>
FRDL then attempts to extract from this data all GPS fix information which
occurred within a pre-set <b>Task window</b>.

<p>
This is saved to a <b>CIMA specification .igc file</b> which
is used by other software (eg MicroFlap) to analyse the flight data.

<p>
A <b>basic outline</b> of the track, its altitude profile and some statistics
are displayed on screen as a 'quick and dirty' indication of what has
been saved. It is NOT intended to constitute any kind of definitive flight
analysis which should be done in a dedicated flight analysis
program (eg MicroFlap).

<p>
Assuming a <b>USB-2</b> connection, a <b>good quality USB cable</b> and the
data is being saved on the <b>local computer</b>, the whole process should
take no more than <b>a few seconds</b>.  If the data is being saved to a
network location then the limiting factor will be the speed of the network
rather than anything to do with FRDL.
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